18 Messidor

The event of 18 Messidor was a bloodless self-coup launched by King Louis Philippe I and the liberal Orleanists against the French Republicans after the Republicans won the elections of 6 July 1840 in a landslide (with 75.71% of the vote). Elections were held in France every four years from 1830 to 1848 under the July Monarchy, nominally a constitutional monarchy, but King Louis Philippe still had the final say on important decisions, including elections. The republicans, supported by the poor people of France, won the election and sought to build a new republic. Faced with a new republican threat, Louis Philippe I decided to appoint his Orleanist faction as the ruling party of France, supplanting the Republicans despite their electoral victory. The Republicans nicknamed the uprising "18 Messidor" by using the French revolutionary calendar, and anti-monarchist sentiment rose after the coup.